Making the Magic Happen @ T-WA ORIENTAL CUISINE There we were, anxiously sitting behind the Sheridan courthouse, talking on cell phones, telling jokes, smoking, and biding our time. My spirits were surprisingly high considering that I had just been sentenced to 29 years. No, I hadn't finally been caught up with for plagiarism and impersonating a writer. It was yet another TV shoot. We had just wrapped the courtroom scene in which (as usual) I was the bad guy. This was our final day of shooting for an episode of Animal Planet's Busted . We were waiting for our Chinese take-out to arrive before we headed to our next location. As the time wore on we all began getting a little edgy, both from hunger and encroaching deadlines. Troy (one of the grips) was the center of attention since this particular restaurant was his suggestion. The director Rick was asking him in a semi-sarcastic way, "It's amazing, how do you do it?" Meanwhile our series producer Chris kept staring at his cigar asking almost tearfully, "why aren't we shooting?" The location producer Kristin was having a heated cell phone conversation with the restaurant owner who had reassured her that the food would be here in two minutes about 20 minutes ago. All during which someone or other would shout "two minutes" fueling the fire. Somewhere in the midst of it all the assistant director Adam turned up with half a cold pizza from his car from the night before and I gratefully took a piece. As I glommed the wilted pizza I went back over the last few days in my head. The first night had been the most physically taxing for both me and my costar, Liberty (the victim and lead) . It started with me breaking into a house and attempting to rape a woman who was 7 months pregnant with a broken leg. . . yeah, I get all the good parts. The night concluded with me fighting with and being arrested by four cops. Two of them were played by actual Arapahoe County cops (who were surprisingly gentle). The other two were an actor named Joe and one of my wrestling buddies, Psycho Sarge. Joe went pretty easy on me but Sarge figured it was a good chance to pay me back for all the times he lost to me in the ring. The following day was comparatively pretty mellow, mostly shooting with the dogs that were to thwart the progression of my crime. This was where the magic of our Director of Photography Matt, our Audio Tech Pam, and Lighting Tech Jerry was put to the test. Problem one: the crime had taken place in the summer, but it had snowed here the night before and we were shooting outside! Problem two: animals love me so we couldn't get the dogs to bark at me. As a matter of fact the dogs were more willing to bark at Mathew (the husband of the victim) than me, and they were supposed to be his dogs! We had Tim (another grip) agitate the dogs just off camera but as soon as I walked into the shot they would start wagging their tails. But the crew weaved their magic and got what the needed to make it all work. I was startled from my movie reverie by the sound and smell of a smoking, choking delivery vehicle. It was our food! A very apologetic little Chinese man unloaded box after box of food until were surrounded by the sights and smells of the Orient. sweet and sour pork, chicken and combo, lemon chicken, Kung Pao double delight, fried and steamed dumplings, and of course, rice of every possible persuasion. Rocket Pictures really knows how to put on a feedbag! Everything I ate (some, if not all of everything available) was absolutely awesome. This may have been partially due to the level of starvation we had reached during the wait for delivery but, nonetheless extremely satisfying. Somewhere from in the midst of our gorge fest came the voices of reason. Our director Rick was saying something about it being "magic time" and the producer Chris was ranting something about "are we shooting yet?" A flurry of activity ensued all around me; everyone was scrambling for the vehicles. Troy and Chad were bickering over whether the props should go in the grip truck or not. Adam was trying to direct everyone on the shortest route to the next site. Rick and Chris were in a heated debate about losing the light. I remember thinking to myself as we caravaned away "the magic has left the building." All in all the food on the entire shoot was excellent and I couldn't have worked with a more together crew. There were of course many other characters in this group that I'm sure I failed to mention. But working 12 to 15 hours a day and running on a couple of hours of sleep a night tends to make one's memory a little hazy, but that's how you make "the magic" happen. All Rights Reserved © 2001 Go-Go Media, LLC